The Aftermath
by calin0622
Summary: With the war finally over and Voldermort at last vanquished, Harry creates a new life for himself. He forges new friendships, keeps the old, raises his godson, comes into his inheritance, and deals with the pressures of wizarding society and more .


Harry Potter felt as though a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders as he emerged from Dumbledore's office. Hermoine and Ron had left five minutes previously at Harry's request while he had parting words with the previous Headmaster's portrait regarding the Elder Wand. Glancing down at the Holly and Phoenix feather wand which was twirling methodically through his lithe fingers, Harry allowed himself a grin. Nobody would be able to get to the Elder wand except for Harry himself. Well, Ron now knew how to get into the Chamber as well, but he'd never think to go there. Harry allowed his feet to lead him to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Myrtle was absent, which Harry was grateful for. If Harry meant to truly hide the wand for good, there could be no witnesses - not even a ghost.

Upon entering the chamber, Harry took his time getting to the main room. When last he'd been here, he'd been 12 and too terrified of his own shadow to take a good look around. Now, with all the time in the world and nothing to fear, the dark dungeons felt oddly comforting. Harry nearly laughed as the word crossed his mind. Never in his wildest daydreams had he seen that one coming. The Chamber of Secrets?? Comforting? No, Harry decided. It was the silence that he liked. The peaceful, wonderful silence. Nothing here could bother him. Nothing here would ask him questions, nag him about the past year, or try to kill him. Here, Harry was alone.

When he finally arrived in the main chamber, the first thing that caught Harry's eye was the rotting body of the basilisk. Even five years later, it looked almost exactly as it had the day he'd killed it with Gryffindor's sword. Repressing a shudder, Harry strolled over to the monster and touched it, almost expecting it to lash out at him. The skin was cool and smooth to the touch. It's eyes, Harry noticed, had a crusty brown gunk around them - blood. And not for the first time did Harry's eyes close in nostalgic thoughts, remembering his former and beloved Headmaster - his mentor and, dare he think it, the only grandfatherly figure Harry had ever known.

Shaking himself as if to chase away his thoughts, Harry glanced around, wondering where he could place the wand. He was half-tempted to just toss it into the water, but something inside him stopped his arm from following through with these thoughts. For something like the Elder Wand, this seemed too disrespectful, too trivial an end. No, there must be somewhere else. And then, at the other end of the Chamber, Harry saw it - the tunnel from which the Basilisk had appeared before he killed it. Jogging over to inspect it, Harry jumped up and stood inside the entrance to the tunnel. It was nearly ten feet tall and led off in various other directions. Whispering "Lumos", Harry started off, deciding to mark the walls with his wand as he went so as not to get lost. He had not been walking for even a minute when something about the tunnel changed. The wall began slanting down, and soon Harry found himself in a place that definitely would not have fit a fully grown basilisk. In fact, it seemed to have been made for humans. His hunch turned out to be correct as there appeared a door at the end of the tunnel. By speaking in Parseltongue, Harry gained himself entrance.

It was unlike anything Harry had been expecting. Lush dark green carpet, so dark it was almost black, stretched from wall to wall, silencing Harry's footfalls. A plush and ornately decorated couch was shoved against one wall, and a king sized bed occupied the other. The bedding looked of silver and green satin. On the headboard, was an ornately carved design centered around an "S" - the very same "S" that covered Slythern's locket. This, Harry realized with awe, was Salazar Slytherin's room - his getaway, whenever he didn't want to be around the castle. Sure enough, there was a door on the third wall that led into a study. Within the study, ancient and dusty tomes lined the walls and a large heavy wooden desk was sitting in the middle, the chair pushed from it. It almost seemed as though someone had abruptly stood up and left the room.

Taking care not to disturb anything else, Harry picked up the ancient text sitting, opened to a random page, in the middle of the ancient and beautifully carved desk. Holding the page with a finger, Harry carefully flipped it over to see the title. Unfortunately, it was in ancient runes which Harry had never learned. He thought the runes looked familiar but he didn't realize where he'd seen them until he flipped open the cover, where he saw written in faded ink, a nearly illegible scrawl not unlike his own.

_Salazar,_

_I took it upon myself to procure a copy of this book for you when I learned of our shared ancestry. I do hope you enjoy. (Please take note that my ancestor was the man intelligent enough to survive the ordeal with death. Ha! Take that you old codger!) _

_Your cousin,_

_Godric_

Harry was flabbergasted. Godric Gryffindor had also been a direct descendant of Ignotus Peverells? That meant...that meant that Harry truly was the last heir of Gryffindor! Had his father known? Harry imagined that he had. The Potter family was incredibly wealthy, lived in Godric's Hollow, and must have had a family tree similar to the one Sirius had shown him in Grimwauld Place somewhere in their manor. This information put in the back of his mind to review later, Harry made his decision.

This room, Salazar Slytherin's secret study, was to be the final resting place of the Elder Wand. The fact that the Tale of the Three Brothers original copy of was sitting on the desk, made it perfect. And the fact that both Slytherin and Gryffindor were relatives of the Peverells, and that he and Tom Riddle where the last descendants of both families, just added to the irony and sealed his decision. Placing the wand reverently upon the open page of the book, Harry took one last look around the study and swept out of the room. His last task finished, it was time to return to the land of the living.


End file.
